A Heavy Burden

Journey to the Celestial City #1. John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress” is the #1 best-selling book of all time after the Bible. It starts out with a man undone and wrought with grief over his condition, but he knows not what it is that has brought this feeling upon himself. Indeed, the man has a great […]

Fast Asleep in Presumption

In the classic allegory “Pilgrim’s Progress” by John Bunyan, the character “Christian” has just left his burden (of sin) behind at The Place Of Redemption. He then immediately encounters three individuals whose names are: “Simple,” “Sloth” and “Presumption.” These are interesting characters to say the least. The book says about Simple, Sloth and Presumption: they […]

What About The Faithful Who’ve Died?

There are three things that are true about believing loved ones that have gone on. The first thing that’s true is: They’re with the Lord. They go to heaven. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, the Apostle Paul writes (and I paraphrase) in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, the […]

Throwing Caution to the Wind

“He who watches the wind will not sow and he who looks at the clouds will not reap.” (Ecclesiastes 11:4) Risk taking. Surely there is wisdom in cautiousness and being careful and weighing this and that before we proceed. And prudence requires that we act in just such a way especially when others are involved […]

On Appointed Tasks and Talking Donkeys

It’s interesting in the story of Christ riding on a donkey as He enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday (Matthew 21:1ff), how the donkey just moments prior to the disciples coming to get him for His God-given appointed task, my friends, he was really just wallowing and whining and lamenting the fact that he’d never been […]

What is Truth? – Part 2

With Jesus standing before him, Pilate asked the question, “What is truth?” And it was because Pilate lived in a day much like our own, I’m convinced, where we just don’t know what to believe anymore since it isn’t always the case that we can trust what we’re being told. Right? We literally live in […]

What is Truth? – Part 1

Many years ago Pilate asked Jesus the question, “What is truth?” And Pilate asked that question, I’m convinced, because he lived in a day much like our own – where we just don’t know what to believe anymore. Do you ever find yourself feeling like that? And as everything that happens and everything that’s talked […]

Moving Forward by Looking Back

And so here we are with another year gone by the wayside. And, if anything, we have another chance for evaluation. And so to begin with, where does 2007 rank in your life experience? I mean, on a scale of one to ten (ten being the best and one being the worst) how do you […]

No Idea What’s Ahead

My grandfather died 12 years ago this coming Tuesday. Yes, that’s right. It was on a Christmas day in 1995 that “Gramps” died. And it was 2 years ago on December 25th, 2005, that I first preached the message: “Lessons from the Holy Family,” that this 4-part blog post series is based upon. (Read Part […]

The Least Likely Place

Coming at you with the third post now in a series entitled: “Lessons from the Holy Family.” (Read the first and second post by clicking the following links: A “God” Thing or Marriage Made in Heaven.) And the third lesson from the holy family (Mary, Joseph and Jesus) is this (it’s actually very similar to […]